This week on the podcast we're talking about mapping out your neighborhood with a Google weather balloon, saying goodbye to software we love, and learning about Google's new Knowledge Graph. Also, we're answering questions about batch audio conversions, making tablets productive, having a say in what search engines say about you.

How to Watch or Listen to This Week's Episode

You can watch the episode by clicking the play button above, but there are plenty of other ways to get it:

News and Discussion

Google Knowledge GraphGoogle Knowledge Graph is a new feature that Google added that we're actually happy to see. It provides associate search results, meaning you get a panel of relevant other information based on your search queries. For example, if you searched for Frederick Douglass you'd get a panel on the right side of your results with information about his birth, death, relevant books, and associated people. For more info, check out these five handy things you can do with the knowledge graph.

Perian Prepares for Retirement Last week Perian, the video codec "swiss army knife" for OS X's Quicktime, announced that it was headed into retirement. One final update will be made, but then Perian's development is over and done with. This isn't the first much-loved app or tool to call it quits on any platform. Many things we use regularly have almost met a similar fate, or have since been replaced by newer options. For that reason, we decided to remember the apps we loved from our past that are no longer with us, plus a few that narrowly survived a similar fate.

Map Your Neighborhood with a Balloon Camera Thorin wanted to get a better birds-eye view of his neighborhood, so he sent a camera up in a balloon to photograph it. It's a really neat project and is fairly inexpensive to accomplish ($140, and everything is reusable). Aside from just photographing your neighborhood, Thorin notes that you could get really interesting arial photos of a party or an event—something that's nearly impossible to capture any other way. It's a neat opportunity to capture just about anything from a new perspective.

Questions and Answers

Each week we answer five questions from readers and listeners. Here's what we tackled this week.

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My Google search results suck. How can I improve my online reputation? Sometimes you end up with search results you don't want and they can seem hard to change—but they're not. You can't necessarily get rid of a given search result, but you can provide Google with more relevant pages to push those results so far down the list that they really won't matter anymore. You can read our guide on how to do that, but here's the gist: create a nameplate site (like you can do with Flavors.me) that links to positive stuff about you, don't associate your real name with any accounts you don't want to appear in Google, and create as much personal stuff on the web as you can (that's not embarrassing). If you want a little help, BrandYourself is a webapp that can walk you through the process. You can use it for free, but premium features cost a little extra.

What's the best way to batch-convert several audio files to multiple formats quickly and easily? On OS X and Windows, I likeAdapter. It's easy to perform batch conversions of several audio and video files for free. Whitson prefers dpPowerAmp for Windows and XLD for OS X, but notes that dbPowerAmp costs money for it to be fully effective. One last alternative is using Wappwolf with your Dropbox or Google Drive account. You can simply turn any folder into a drop conversion folder that will upload your files, convert them to whatever formats you want, and then place the converted versions in your Dropbox/Google Drive. It's pretty cool. Check out our guide on how to set it up.

Should I get a tablet or laptop for taking notes and writing papers at school? As Whitson has argued, tablets can actually be great productivity devices. If you're just writing papers and taking notes—which is to say, typing text—a tablet plus a Bluetooth keyboard is more than sufficient. If you're trying to do much more than that you may want to consider something a little more robust.

Pash suggested using your smartphone with a Bluetooth keyboard for notetaking purposes and getting a computer for the tougher work. Taking notes on a smartphone may look weird, but it's about the same as doing it on a tablet. Whitson suggested holding out for a Windows 8 tablet to get the best of both worlds. I suggested picking up a good hybrid Android tablet, like the Asus Transformer. It's basically a netbook in the dock and tablet out of it. If you can't wait for Windows 8 (or don't want to spend the money), this is the way to go. Ultimately, the tough thing to do on a tablet is do research while writing the paper because multitasking isn't amazing. Images can also be difficult to work with. If you're just typing, however, virtually anything will work. Just make sure you get a good keyboard.

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A Solution to the Google Payments + Android Tablet Problem Bob writes in with an update for the guy who couldn't get Google to accept payments through the Play Store who called in a few weeks ago:

There was a question on last weeks about credit card payments on Google Play being rejected. I had the same problem and found the cause was: I was using a Rooted Nook Color and Google would not add this device to my Google account because it was not ‘approved,' and only approved devices could download paid apps. The only I error I saw was ‘There is problem with your payment.' I could download all the free apps I wanted. I have heard about this happening with other non-rooted devices, which Google had not yet added the device to the approved.' Google would be better served to have a 'No Refund' policy for unapproved devices.

Downloads of the Week

Each week we talk about our favorite downloads. Here are our picks for this week.

Autodesk 123D (Windows) You've got easy access to a regular printer any time you need one, but not everyone has a MakerBot or other 3D printer on their desk, and the learning curve for designing printable 3D objects can be intimidating. Windows application Autodesk 123D makes both designing and printing in 3D more accessible, with a simple but well-rounded design toolkit and options to save a project locally or get it professionally fabricated and shipped in about a week.

Firefox Beta (Android) Firefox has been available on Android for awhile, but apart from Firefox-specific features like Firefox Sync, it was never a phenomenal browser, mostly because it was slower than molasses. The newest beta, however, brings a completely new interface, much better performance, and more to Android users everywhere.

Sparrow Update (iOS) The email app Sparrow received an update today that adds a few handy features, including a new landscape mode for composing emails, a new way to flip between messages, and the ability to edit Gmail labels directly from the app.

Please keep your questions as brief as possible. This means about 3-5 sentences for emails and 30-60 seconds for calls and videos. Your questions can be specific, but broader questions are generally better because they'll apply to more people. For example, "how can I breathe new life into my old PDA?" is much better than "what can I do with an old HP iPAQ 210?" Either way, we look forward to hearing from you!